After waking up Plethora finds himself on top of a bed in a white room. The room has no doors or windows, indicating that he"s still inside the shop instance. After knowing where he is he takes a second to go over what happened after he entered that room.After thinking about it he concludes that it was a terrifying experience, if he didn"t brake through those negative thoughts he probably never would"ve recovered. He wouldn"t have tried as much anymore, resigning himself to what other people want. But now that he broke through those shackles he feels liberated, a feeling of heaviness, that he didn"t know was there, is now gone from his shoulders.
But there"s not just less, there"s something more too. Another connection, not to dissimilar from the connection he has between himself and his phantoms. Through this connection he can share his senses, there are even thoughts, thoughts that aren"t his own. What these senses showed him are different then what he saw around himself. Around there everything was black with two suns spiraling around each other in the distance. In the dark sky were tiny sparkles, braking up the darkness.
These thoughts however are also confused and slightly chaotic and even a bit afraid. But underneath all these thoughts was a hunger, a hunger for strength.
Plethora slowly reached out to these slightly chaotic thoughts, and after he touched on them they reacted startled, growing more chaotic. Plethora didn"t know what to do, when he does this with his phantoms they already know it"s coming, they are one after all.
But these thoughts slash out to Plethora, denying him access.
Percy feels honestly sad about this, he truly just wants to help these chaotic thoughts to make them calm down, to figure out what happened.
These feelings are transmitted subconsciously through the unfinished bridge between Percy and these alien thoughts. And these feelings calm those thoughts down, allowing Percy to fully connect.
Right away he knows who these thoughts belong to, the little imp!
The little imp reaches out to Plethora the moment he recognises the other. "Leader, what happened!? Am I... inside you?" A disgusted feeling was being transmitted at the end of that thought.
"I"m not really sure what happened, the only thing I know is that we got bounded together. A bound that should make us grow stronger together." But Plethora doesn"t really know what happened either, so after saying that he"ll go find out more he sits up in his bed.
What he does after sitting up is creating his clones again, they disappear when Plethora pa.s.ses out. He always does this when he has a moment, he think it"s weird when he doesn"t have them ready to split off. But after forming the first one something weird happened. The phantom splits of without Plethora actually wanting him to.
This phantom however is different from the other ones. Its skin is slightly greenish, while its eyes, including the eye whites, are a deep forest green. The nails are slightly longer, the teeth slightly sharper, the ears slightly bigger.
Then it spoke, in a deep hoa.r.s.e voice, "I"m finally out of that dark s.p.a.ce, but this body is different! And where are my wings, my tail," His hands move to his head, "My horns!" He falls to his knees, his hands on his face sobbing. "My beautiful horns, my beautiful seven horns.."
Plethora was looking at this playing out in front of him, he can feel true sadness flowing through the connection. He puts his hand on the phantom"s, imp"s, shoulder and comforted him. "There there, I"m sure they"ll return when we grow stronger. You already look different from the others! So it"ll only be a small step to achieve that."
The imp looks up, his deep green eyes staring deeply in Plethora"s gray green eyes. "You really think so?"
"Yes, I really think so." Plethora said with a smile.
"Woehoe!" The imp jumps up. "Then let"s grow stronger!"
"First wait a minute."
A little over 10 minutes later Plethora had all his eight other phantoms overlapping his own body before calling out. "Typhon!"
A portal appeared in the room. Plethora, his phantoms, and the imp walk through it. On the other side though they see someone else than Plethora expected. Or it"s more like he"s missing someone.
Molly sits there, looking relieved, tired, and also a little sad. "How are you feeling?" She asks, the usual mirth in her voice nowhere to be found, only tiredness and worry.
"I"m fine mom, I feel lightened of a burden I didn"t know I had. There"s also this guy," he says while pointing at the imp. "He takes a clone, which is a genius idea if you ask me. But how are you? You look... terrible, I have no better words for how you look." Percy really has never seen his mom looking that... bad, so tired and sad. She normally would come running when she sees him after something happened. But now she just sits there.
"I"m fine, my binding was just a bit more taxing as the difference in strength between me and Lotta was rather big. But everything went especially well." The prideling on the other hand looked quite good. She grew to 80cm long and was actually flying.
"She actually flies after the binding, while I can"t fly again! It"s so unfair!" The imp, after being filled in by Plethora on the prideling, exclaimed enviously. The lost of his wings, tail, and horns. .h.i.t him rather hard.
"Oh don"t worry, your wings will come back, I"m sure of it!" Plethora says to comfort him. "But where is Typhon? I want to thank him, not only did he give me a soulmate, but he also helped me with dark thoughts I didn"t know I had."
Molly"s eyes lit up, "You overcame your heart demon? You are amazing Percy, the first time doing that is the hardest, and the earlier you do this the greater your future progress will be! But yeah, he helped you a lot. But he paid for it." Her eyes turn red and tears collect in them, tears that don"t fall. "He paid with his life."
"What!?" Plethora exclaims. He didn"t really know the man, he wouldn"t even say he liked him, but hearing that someone gave his life for you does something with you. "Why?" He asks, this time way softer.
"For three reasons I think. The first and foremost is that it was his mission, his mission in life was to make the most powerful being. The second reason is that he really liked you and saw the potential in you. The third reason is probably that you are my son. He was my teacher," A tear falls down from her eye, "But I ran away after his teachings went more... in depth. All I learned from him is how to be a tamer and breeder, and to honor that I will take care of this store, of everyone in it. That"s also what he asked from me."
Molly looked sad, she was staring in the air. "But here"s a letter from him to you, it"s about what the bound will do." She forces a smile on her face as she gives the letter to Percy, it still looks like a sad smile though. "Go read it, I"ll go take a nap now I know that you"re fine. I stayed up 5 days straight waiting for you. Just say "leave" when you want to leave, you can probably go to the a.s.sembly for the examination already, even though you"ll be a little early." And like that she disappears into a portal.
The letter is long, but clear.
"h.e.l.lo Percy,
If you"re reading this everything should have gone well, and for that I"m glad. You must have many questions, like why I gave up my life for this, I hope to give you an explanation to many of these questions in this letter.
First I"ll tell you why I did it. The main reason is that Moeder put her trust in you and that I like you too. The second reason is the dept I own your mother, I made her do things against her will, forcing her to run away from both me and my teaching. The third reason is that I was going to die soon anyway.
With this question out of the way I can continue to the main point, the bound.
This bound is based on an ancient equal contract. Normally when either party dies in a contract, the other will follow. But I changed some things.
The imp is a soul based being and because of this he isn"t as bound to the mortal plane, or his body, as any other normal creature. Thus allowing him to enter your soul plane after some conditions are met. I won"t go too in debt, but the process must have been traumatic to the both of you, and this, together with both having the part of Moeder in your soul planed I could connect you two.
The part of Moeder in the imp was mine by the way, I don"t know what kind of effects this will bring.
The connection between you two should allow the imp to live in one of your clones, giving him both a stronger body and practical immortality as long as you live.
The effect on you will be great too, maybe even greater. When the imp evolves, as soul based beings do, your soul will evolve too. This should make you the first flesh based being with an evolving soul, and if my research over all these years pointed at something, it was that true strength isn"t just inside the body.
You will be stepping into uncharted territory, and I"m sorry that I can"t be there to chart it out with you. The toughest step has been set, grow stronger and go beyond all. I believe in Moeder"s judgment, so I also believe in you.
And thanks for letting me die believing I fulfilled my mission, and for letting me see your mom again.
I wish you luck,
Typhon, father of monsters"
"That"s some heavy stuff. But that means I actually just get all the pros your phantoms have, but I also get the pros of being a living demon? That"s sick! I"ll make you stronger, so my body grows stronger too, and I"ll get my parts back!" The imp comments on the letter, and the future.
"Hey imp, do you have a name?" Plethora doesn"t know how to reply to the imp, and thought about that he doesn"t know the name at all.
"I don"t have a name, why would someone have given me a name? It"s not like the old man was that nice to everyone here. And I"m here for about as long as I can remember." The imp says matter of factly.
"Should I name you? I"m very good in names." Plethora says while thumping his chest.
"You? You call yourself Plethora cause you want to be many, and because your name starts with a P too? What will I be? Green Phantom?" The imp says with ridicule in his eyes.
"No, I"d name you... Loma. Because you"re a megalomaniac." Plethora says, visibly happy with his superior naming sens.
The ridicule and contempt in the imp"s eyes doesn"t disappear, it"s still a little awkward to be stared at like that with practically your own face. "What a stupid name. I don"t want an a on the end of my name, that"s for woman! Plethora... Pff. If you you want to name me after what I am I will be Megalo!" A sense of superiority flows of Megalo, thick pride of being superior to others. He"ll still listen to Plethora though, as they arranged previously.
"That"s fine by my, I can call you Lo for short right? I"d have done that if your name was Loma too hehehe." And like this both Plethora and Megalo had a little win, but unknown to them it was a big win.
Two beings who never had an equal that could be close to them finally found another one that"s truly close, friend, brothers maybe even. Rivals for sure. And even though this bound came to be in a slightly forceful way it helps both of them in moving forward.